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Lineup

Bench: Adams, Descalso, Jackson, Robinson, Anderson. This is only if there are no trades.
I think Furcal is gone. Minus the meltdown due to the NLCS pressure, I believe the Cardinals believe in Kozma. He started every game down the stretch and in the postseason and did fairly well. I do think there will be some trades made and it very well could be for an established 2b or Power hitting CF. I think that Jay and either Craig or Adams will be traded. Ultimately I would love to see Beltran go and move Craig to RF and start Adams at 1b. I think the rotation is set until Garcia comes back and then Westbrook moves to the pen.

I said to let Pujols walk and sign Beltran to play right and help out in center and move Berkman to first. All of that actually happened other than Beltran helping in center, but he didn't have to regardless.

Well my out of the box idea this off-season is a lot less likely to happen, but could be just as beneficial.

Lance Berkman:

Berkman is probably leaning toward retirement. He couldn't play much this season and he was often injured. But he has a place on our team if he can be healthy.

My offer to Berkman would be:

Become an assistant hitting coach with John Mabry. An open door situation. If he can be healthy enough, we activate him and he is on the roster and can play. If he doesn't feel healthy, then he gets started on his coaching career.

So a million dollar base pay, regardless of what he does. If he is activated, then he gets incentives based on plate appearances.

If he doesn't feel well enough to play, then he can start coaching. He is always welcomed into our clubhouse.

Of course, you don't make this offer without a few things.

1. You have to know that Berkman is ready to move on from playing (you don't want to insult the guy)
2. You have to make sure it's fair to John Mabry, who is back next year
3. You have to get agreement from Matheny, McGwire, and all other coaches
4. You have to get approval from the league that it is okay
5. And is it fair to Berkman?

So it would take a lot, but it's a neat out of the box idea. I think we missed his professionalism at the plate more this post-season then we missed Pujols

Bench: Adams, Descalso, Jackson, Robinson, Anderson. This is only if there are no trades.
I think Furcal is gone. Minus the meltdown due to the NLCS pressure, I believe the Cardinals believe in Kozma. He started every game down the stretch and in the postseason and did fairly well. I do think there will be some trades made and it very well could be for an established 2b or Power hitting CF. I think that Jay and either Craig or Adams will be traded. Ultimately I would love to see Beltran go and move Craig to RF and start Adams at 1b. I think the rotation is set until Garcia comes back and then Westbrook moves to the pen.

Kozma will likely only be a league average defensive shortstop, with a .600-.625 OPS bat.

He is not a big league everyday shortstop. He gave us probably the most value he will ever produce in the big leagues this post-season

Adams is the most likely to be traded. I can't see them moving Craig, he is too valuable, too cheap, and too versatile to trade unless you get an overpayment to move him.

Of those guys, I feel like hardy is the only major upgrade over furcal. And we'd have to trade for him so no thanks unless its cheap

Drew has potential if he's healthy but many teams will look at him

Problem is how long can furcal stay healthy? Can he start the season even healthy? Can he even be as effective at SS with his elbow issue? Plus he dropped way off in production.

Something I think could be interesting if Kolten Wong isn't ready would be to move Furcal to 2B and bring in a SS. I don't think furcal will have the same arm anymore but he could still be an effective second basemen

If fully healthy I really have no interest in bringing in someone else

I can't see them trading Craig or Jay. Jay is a valuable player and I have to think Craig is nearly untouchable because of his cheapness and great ability.

Only reason to trade Jy is if Tavares shows this year he can be as good or a better defensive center fielder. I don't think he can. In 2014 I'm seeing our line up being, in no particular order.

Jay CF
Tavares RF
Holliday LF
Craig 1B
Molina C
Freese 3B
Wong 2B

Only real question I have is SS. I don't think it would be a bad move to package Adams and some other prospects, probably pitchers, to a team to bring in a future at SS

Taveras isn't a long term option in Center, so Jay will have a place.

Expect Taveras to replace Beltran in 2014 and be our permanent Right Fielder.

So your lineup would be accurate

But Garcia will be our 2014 Shortstop, mark it down. But if he doesn't progress well enough, then trading for Franklin of Seattle and packaging say Adams and maybe Jenkins/Swaggerty or higher level pitching prospect that isn't Martinez or Miller.